Committee Hearing, February 13, 2007

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 13, 2007 10:20 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN JAMES F. KENNEY COUNCILMAN JUAN RAMOS COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN DANIEL SAVAGE RESOLUTION 060947 - Resolution authorizing the Committee on Public Safety to hold hearings on the need for a substantial increase in probation and parole officers within the Adult Probation and Parole Department. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good morning, everyone. My name is Donna Reed Miller and I am the Chair of the Committee on Public Safety. The Committee on Public Safety is now in session. Would you Clerk please read the title of the resolution.

Resolution No. 11 060947, resolution authorizing the Committee on Public Safety to hold hearings on the need for a substantial increase in probation and parole officers within the Adult Probation and Parole Department.

Thank you. Let the record reflect that in attendance are Committee members Councilman Frank Rizzo and we're waiting for a few other members, and we also have Councilman Savage, who is the sponsor of the resolution, in attendance here this morning. And I'd just like to begin by thanking those who have taken an interest 3 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 in Philadelphia and its problem in the ex-offenders community. Today we are here to discuss the need for a substantial increase in probation and parole officers within the Adult and Parole Department. When ex-offenders return to prison, that means less money for schools, recreation centers and police or anything that may be necessary or dear to your heart. But sometimes that is echoing in everyone's statement, is that these inmates keep returning. So we cannot just say, I do not want to deal with them. We've held hearings that resulted in the creation of the Mayor's Office of Reentry and also looked at criminal background screening. This is just to name a few. However, we need to look at the heart of the problem, why are these inmates returning to prison. Well, there are many problems, and today we will look at the problem of 4 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 probation and parole officers and their numbers to see if there's something we can do to help curb this problem. With that in mind, Councilman Savage also has opening remarks. Thank you.

Good morning and thank you, Madam Chair and members of the Committee. There is an unprecedented crime epidemic of significant proportion. We all agree that every solution must be pursued and pursued vigorously. The obvious and popular solutions are to curb the gun violence and drug activity by increasing law enforcement capabilities and deployment and increasing prosecutions. Today we shall look at another component: prevention. We shall examine how we can curdle crime in this City by cutting down on recidivism. We shall look at how the criminal justice system works after a person is convicted and how 5 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 it may be improved. Our focus is the Philadelphia Adult Probation and Parole Department. The APPD is responsible for the supervision of offenders. We must do what we can to ensure that this department has adequate staffing and resources to enable the probation officers to do the best job possible and help keep our City safe. The statistics show that many of these offenders commit more crimes, including homicides, while under supervision; that is, while on probation and parole. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates a link between persons on probation or parole and those committing crimes. Some of those findings are: In 2006, of the 406 homicides, 55 of the victims were on probation. In total, 326 probationers were shot in 2006. Of the 235 homicides which resulted in arrests in 2006, 51 of those arrests were probationers. 6 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 These numbers provoke a couple of inquiries. First, those who are on probation are at a high risk to commit another crime. Hence, do they need to be more intensely monitored? Second, can the APPD supervise those under supervision adequately with its current staff and resources? With the current overcrowding in the prison system, probationary sentences will be imposed more frequently. More persons will be on probation. This is a step towards improving the situation, increasing the number of Philadelphia APPD officers.

Thank you. Just to note that also in attendance is another member of the Public Safety Committee, Councilman Jim Kenney. We're actually going to start calling witnesses, and the first witness is not here, so we're going to move on to the second witness, which is the 7 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Honorable C. Darnell Jones. Good morning. Please state your name for the record and any other identifying information, and speak directly into the mike. You can move the mike forward if you need to. JUDGE JONES: Good morning, Council Lady Donna Reed Miller.

Thank you. Good morning to you. Thank you for coming. JUDGE JONES: Thank you. Councilman Kenney and Councilman Savage. I am C. Darnell Jones, the President Judge of the -- excuse me. Councilman Rizzo. My apologies, sir.

I knew it wasn't intentional. JUDGE JONES: I am C. Darnell Jones, the President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and the Chair of the Administrative Governing Board. I speak to you in support of the resolution of Councilman Daniel J. Savage. 8 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 While I address this most important body as President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, I speak based upon my 32 years in the justice system. I spent the first years of my legal 7 career as an Assistant Public Defender, 8 which included service as Chief of the 9 Family Court Division of that office for 10 two years immediately prior to becoming a 11 judge. As a judge, I served in the 12 criminal section of the Court of Common Pleas for 12 years, which included the positions of Managing Judge of the Adult Probation and Parole Department, Co-Coordinating Judge of the Homicide Division and Supervising Judge of the Grand Jury, all of these prior to becoming President Judge and Chair of the Administrative Governing Board. Even now, I still have a full complement of criminal matters over which I preside. I, therefore, bring to you a multi-faceted expertise in what the system can do to significantly enhance 9 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 the ability of the FJD to render the services needed to address the serious crime and violence problem in the City of Philadelphia. Research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, an entity with which the FJD has created a special research program in probation, demonstrates a substantial link between being on probation or parole and the likelihood to commit another crime. I won't go into the details and the statistics of those highlights, because Councilman Savage just related those to you in his opening statement. I will state, however, that I believe these numbers serve to highlight key points. First, those who are on probation are at a high risk to commit another crime. More importantly, the Penn study underscores the recognition that there are specific probationers who have a proclivity to be recidivist and thus warrant much stricter individualized 10 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 supervision. Second, the caseloads in the APPD are so high that they are a serious impediment to the current core of officers' ability to do their job to the fullest ability. I must add at this point that the current pay scale for the existing core of probation officers is inadequate, given the caseloads and the nature of their awesome and dangerous responsibilities. Given the current overcrowding issues in the county prison system, it is imperative that when a judge sentences an individual to probation, that sentence must be effective and deterrent. The first step improving the current situation is increasing the number of Philadelphia probation officers. Now, speaking from personal, hands-on experience, the most effective use of a probation officer is when a trial judge and the probation officer can work together to formulate an individualized probation supervisory plan 11 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 that addresses both the judge's obligation to protect the community and a defendant's specific criminal behavior, its causes, the defendant's neighborhood environment, education and opportunities for remedial education, enhancement of job skills, the job market in a location proximate to the defendant's residence and any existing special circumstances which merit additional resources. The lower the probation officer to probationer ratio, the more predictable a successful outcome. The end result is a safer, more inviting city. The dedicated leadership and the highly committed existing workforce comprise a powerful resource. I urge you to add to their number so that we can restore our rightful place as one of the greatest and safest cities in America. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony. Are there any questions from 12 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Committee members or anyone for this witness? Councilman Savage.

Judge, thank you for coming out today. So you believe that if we increase the probation officers, that it will make a dent in crime? JUDGE JONES: Unequivocally.

Is there any number that you would think that the increase should -- how many probation officers do you feel as the President Judge that APPD should have at this time? JUDGE JONES: I think perhaps the best and most efficient way to answer that question is as many as the City can afford and then allocate additional monies to afford more. We have to understand and appreciate the fact that there are only so many beds in the county prison system and, realistically, only so many in the state prison system. Probation, parole 13 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 will allow people to get their lives together with our direct contact. Judges are increasingly concerned that they have an ability to be able to cater specific sentences. From personal experience, I used to bring probation officers into my courtroom with the defendant and tell the defendant on the record, In addition to the regular reporting responsibilities, I want you to be in my jury box, in my waiver room, to sit here and listen and watch. I also want you to come back with verification that you went to seek a job, and additional things like that, additional requirements to let them know my hand is in this pie firsthand. And I also told probationers, If you see that you might have a problem and you may be tempted to become a recidivist, all you have to do is call the probation officer. He or she will bring you to me, and I will do everything that I can personally and professionally to help you so that you won't take that wrongful step. And 14 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 it works, but it works because you have enough probation officers to give that kind of hands-on individualized attention. But with the numbers that we have, they are woefully inadequate to address this type of problem and that type of remedy. So the more that you can staff and pay for, the better. But I also understand that when we hire one, that we have to look at the big picture. That means more computers, more space, more desks and everything else that follows, benefits, the whole nine yards. I am fully, acutely aware of that, but the bottom line is, we have to make a concerted effort, because the prisons are full. We know what's going on in the federal court system. I was a judge on the Jackson versus Hendrick court for many, many years here in Philadelphia. I know full well what potentially can happen. We can prevent that by 15 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 increasing the numbers significantly in the Adult Probation and Parole Department.

Thank you, Judge. JUDGE JONES: Thank you.

Councilman Kenney.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Your Honor. Could you explain some of the powers that a probation officer has different than a police officer and why they can be more effective in conducting their duties with these individuals? JUDGE JONES: Absolutely. First and foremost, a police officer seeing an individual walking down the street by reason of the Constitution cannot encroach without probable cause or reasonable suspicion. If an individual is on probation or parole and that probation officer knows that individual, 16 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 that individual is duty bound to report and to submit to a variety of things that normally one would not be able to have to surrender to, such as drug urine testing, job searches, verification that they're employed, verification of address, electronic monitoring and all those kinds of things that come along with surrendering to the court system many liberties because you are now on probation and/or parole. And that's the major difference.

Do they have the ability to arrest? JUDGE JONES: Ab --

They can arrest on site or do they have to go through a process to pull that person back into the system? JUDGE JONES: Two responses. If that individual is committing a crime or if that individual has failed to appear or failed to report, the Court, the judge, issues wanted cards or a 17 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 warrant for the arrest for a technical violation, for something simply as not reporting. If those wanted cards exist, that probation officer has the right to take that person into custody. Let me give you another personal example. An individual was on my probation many, many years ago. That individual reported intoxicated. The probation officer said to the individual, I'm going to take you into custody and take you over to Judge Jones' courtroom, because he does not allow this, he doesn't tolerate it. The individual told the probation officer, I don't care, I will take the judge out. That probation officer went to the phone to call and the individual left. I was notified immediately. I issued a warrant for his arrest, as well as wanted cards. He ultimately was brought in front of me at a hearing. Frankly, I told him I was so upset with 18 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 his conduct that I was going to continue the case for 30 days so that I could cool down, and if I couldn't cool down after 30 days, I would give the case to another judge to hear. When he came back for the formal hearing, I told him, Quite frankly, I have prayed over this. It is serious business to me. Because I know the frailties of human nature, I forgive you. However, what you did was an affront to the court by threatening a judge and for that, you must pay a price, and I sent him to the state prison.

Could you talk a little bit about what type of training and how long it takes to actually train a probation officer in the system? Is there a school? Where do they attend? JUDGE JONES: I am going to defer that question to the leadership, Mr. Robert Malvestuto, who is the Chief or Co-Chief of the Probation Department, 19 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 who can tell you the intricacies and how long that detail training is.

Great. Thank you, Your Honor. JUDGE JONES: Yes, sir.

Councilman Rizzo.

Good morning, Judge. JUDGE JONES: Good morning, sir.

Judge, there's a program that I have an interest in, and tell me if this is an area that you could add something to. The worker inmate program where there are inmates incarcerated in our county jail that are programmed for work release, they go through a process and they're able to leave the jail and come back in the evenings. The program appears that it's going to get some funding in the next budget where these inmates will be able to go to work, in some cases at Fairmount 20 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Park Commission. They'll be paid. They'll also be able possibly working on the Zoo to give them some training in the area of maintenance and electrical work where they'll actually be paid, and at the time they're released, they'll have a few bucks in their pocket. And apparently there's some data that shows that a person with a job in most cases doesn't come back to incarceration. Once we get the program working, what do we do to let the judges know that -- because I understand that many judges hesitate to put a person on the work release program because there's no jobs. Councilman Goode and I, we've also worked together including the tax incentive program where employers that hire inmates will be able to take advantage of a tax incentive, a tax break of $5,000 if they stay for a period of time. So eventually we're going to have this program working, and when it 21 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 does, the jail wants to make sure that the sentencing judges keep in the back of their mind that there is this program that's in the development stages, and hopefully that will create an environment where people that normally -- the Commissioner said that many of the people they keep data on come back after a few months or weeks because they get themselves in trouble again. So if they leave, they have a few dollars in their pocket when they leave. So I think it's a great idea, especially when I go visit the jail and there's 80 people sitting there, men and women, that have been programmed, but there's no opportunities for them. So we're developing those opportunities right now, so while they're incarcerated, they can go to work. They're going to work midnight to 8:00, they're going to work 4:00 to 12:00. And Commissioner King is doing everything humanly possible, even providing transportation 22 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 to locations where they can go to work. So all we need now is to develop the jobs, which Fairmount Park Commission and the Zoo are presently developing. JUDGE JONES: Councilman, I laud that, because that is the single most important thing that we as a society and a city can do and, that is, to provide employment. Employment breeds dignity, and with dignity there is less likelihood to engage in recidivism. You hit the nail right on the head. And in terms of spreading the word, we will do that as effectively and efficiently as humanly possible by reason of going to the Board of Judges meeting and letting every judge in that meeting and every judge through Judge Presenza as the President Judge of Municipal Court to let everybody know that the City is on board with this process. And lastly in that regard, I think with the power of this Council, the citizens can appreciate the effort of the 23 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 judiciary to making it a safer city, along with the intelligent approach by providing jobs and let the City be less worried about we're opening the doors to let the criminals run out, but rather it is a joint effort between the court system and the City Council and the executive to make this work for a safer city in the long run. I think it's right on the money, sir.

We're working on the funding right now, but the first six are programmed to start their employment in the Fairmount Park Commission where they will learn how to use power tools, where they'll learn to build fences, they'll learn vegetation management, and some of the subcontractors that work will have an opportunity to look at their performance and say, You're going to have a job the minute you leave incarceration. And I don't know, maybe there's a way that we could accelerate their release if we know 24 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 that they're heading towards a job that could release overcrowding in the system. JUDGE JONES: All I would ask this body to do is to share that with our District Attorney so that there won't be the public contest -- good morning, Ms. Abraham -- to share that with District Attorney Abraham so that there won't be this incongruency or this fighting for one side to buy into this and release people on those specific conditions and on the other side there being the opposition -- because I do respect wholly and agree wholly with the protection of the City, but if we do it jointly, the City can see a unified front of all branches of government to alleviate and eradicate this issue of crime. I've got to tell you, in terms of Fairmount Park and teaching and practical realities of things, as many of you know, the Commissioner, the Department of Recreation, Vic Richard, 25 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 and I and four other gentlemen went to Slidell, Louisiana less than a week after the hurricane. We took chainsaws, we took shovels, we took generators, food, thanks to Councilman Ramos and others. We went down there and spent a week there helping to clean up houses and helping the people. Two things happened there. One, we were called across the street by the National Guardsmen who were there to show them how to start a chainsaw. And at the end of the time there, there actually was a television news crew there from Philadelphia and they interviewed one of the people who we helped, and that gentleman, Mr. Freddie Narcisse, said, I now see why Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love. And that's the kind of image that we can portray. That's the kind of reality that we can be through a cooperative effort with this City government.

Well, thank you, sir. And to end this, what's really 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 encouraging is that the unions are -- there was some concern on how they would respond to this, but they've accepted this very well. They're looking at it as an opportunity for training, for people to leave incarceration and say, I've got a skill, you've seen me work, now I need a job. So we're going to put all that together. JUDGE JONES: And what's good for the City is good for the unions. Absolutely.

Thank you, sir. JUDGE JONES: Thank you, sir.

Thank you. JUDGE JONES: Thank you, Madam. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Councilman. I just have one question. You said that one of your former positions was Managing Judge of the APPD. 27 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 JUDGE JONES: Yes.

What is that exactly? What are the duties of a Managing Judge? JUDGE JONES: In the late '90s while I was the Co-Coordinating Judge of the Homicide Division, I was also given the responsibility of being the Managing Judge of the Adult Probation and Parole Department. It was a newly created position. With that position the first order of business for me was to go over to the Probation Department and meet with literally every employee in the Probation Department, from chief to secretary, to let them know, one, that the system is there for them, for all of us to work together, and for them to tell me what they needed. The second priority was assimilating all of that information. And then the third priority was working with the leadership in the Probation Department to identify key people who could facilitate and institute the kind 28 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 of recommendations that came about by reason of that inquiry and also, quite frankly, looking at the big picture. Because one of the things that I saw was the fact that we needed Spanish-speaking supervisors and Spanish-speaking probation officers in increased numbers. I speak Spanish. My degree is in French, quite frankly. So for me, it was a very natural transition to be able to reach out to certain segments of the community to increase those numbers. We have crime everywhere in the City. It's not just in one part. And to be able to address that on a macro level, to me, makes the system run efficiently, and that's what I was about doing as I was there in that capacity. And quite honestly, I think overall it also imparted a sense of caring on the bench from a management position that generates goodwill that causes people to work harder. That's what I truly, truly believe in, and that's what happened at 29 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 that time.

So does that position still exist? JUDGE JONES: It no longer exists. When I left to go to the Civil Division, it was over, and they have never done it again.

Okay. Thank you. JUDGE JONES: Yes, ma'am. Thank all of you.

Thank you for your testimony. JUDGE JONES: Councilman Greenlee, good morning, sir. How are you?

Good morning, Your Honor. How are you? JUDGE JONES: Fine. Thank you.

Let me note at this time that we have Councilman Greenlee, who is a member of this Committee, in attendance at this hearing and Councilwoman Blackwell, who is not a 30 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 member of the Committee. Thank you. I see our first witness is here, our District Attorney, Lynne Abraham.

Good morning, Madam Chair. My name is Lynne Abraham, L-Y-N-N-E, A-B-R-A-H-A-M. I'm the District Attorney of Philadelphia.

Good morning. How are you?

Quite well. Thank you. How are you, Councilwoman?

I'm doing fine. Do you have written testimony?

No, I don't.

Fine. You can proceed.

Thank you. It's a joy to follow Judge Jones and his testimony about the Probation Department, and I have several observations. First and foremost, the Committee on Public Safety is to be congratulated for having this hearing. It's something that is so 31 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 important and central to the ability of the City of Philadelphia to not only take an intelligent look at crime but to turn crime around. Number two, my special thanks to Councilman Dan Savage for proposing this resolution with the Committee's input so that we could discuss this issue at some length today. I have been a member of the bench and the Bar of Philadelphia and in the criminal justice system for well over 40 years, so I think that I have some ability to elucidate for the Committee my thoughts on the Probation and Parole Department. I think it is fair to say that while we don't look at any branch of the criminal justice system as an entity alone, in order for the criminal justice system to truly work as a system, I think Judge Jones' point is quite well taken, that we must be coordinated and work together as a system. We're a somewhat sometimes dysfunctional family, but on 32 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 the whole I think we try to make sure that we are bringing into the discussion all aspects of the criminal justice system. Probably the most forgotten or the most misunderstood, if I can use that word advisedly, part of the criminal justice system is the Probation and the Parole Department, because I don't think people really understand its appropriate role in the system of justice in which we operate. Essentially, the Probation and the Parole Department works as a branch of the court to carry out and vindicate the Court sentence. It is the parole and the probation officer who makes sure that the judges' sentences are carried out while that person is on parole or probation and all the conditions and terms that the Court imposed upon the defendant are also carried out. I might also add that there are occasions where a person is still 33 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 presumed to be innocent and pretrial where the Court may order, as a condition of the defendant's continuing to remain on bail, certain terms and conditions, and in, for example, the Gun Court, which is a specialized court, the Probation Department makes sure that this defendant is able to abide by the rules set down by the Court, to make sure that he or she is allowed to remain on probation pretrial bail, and the probation officer reports to the Court. The Probation and Parole Department has in the past been somewhat considered as a stepchild and by some judges not considered as important. It is a branch of the government that is totally misunderstood by the public, and this hearing will give a chance for the public to understand the extremely critical work that the Probation Department performs. I wholeheartedly support the resolution's request that we increase the 34 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 total number of probation and parole officers, not only in the Adult Probation Department but as long as we're trying to fix a system which can do with some fixing, the Juvenile Probation Department at any one time also has about 6,000 cases. So it's not an insignificant number. The probation and parole officers have a difficult, dangerous and frequently thankless job, and they really can only perform their job if they have the capacity to monitor, to watch and to control probationers up close and personally. Over the years that I've been in the criminal justice system, the Probation Department, men and women, want to do a good job. They try their best, but they are overwhelmed by the problems and issues facing them, everything from lack of equipment. I remember it wasn't too many years ago where they were the last department to have rotary dial 35 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES.

060947 telephones, taking notes with pencil, probation officers struggling before me as a judge trying to read the previous probation officer's notes. They couldn't quite figure out what the probation officer prior to the probation officer who is appearing in front the Court was writing. A well-equipped Probation Department, a well-trained Probation Department is essential. In order to have a well-equipped and well-trained Probation Department, they have to be well paid and given a reason to stay. It doesn't mean that they have to stay forever. It just means that we want to encourage them to stay longer. In addition to that, what really wears a probation officer out is the inordinate caseload that is placed upon them. A hundred and twenty, 130, 140, 150, 160, 180 cases per month is just extraordinarily taxing and wearing. One cannot hope as a prisoner, 36 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 ex-offender on probation or parole to get the services he or she needs with a probation officer who is busy running from one defendant to the other, just checking in by phone to see if that person is doing what he or she is supposed to. And it's too easy for a probation officer to be so overwhelmed that they really can't check is that person going to drug treatment, is that person going to mental health treatment, is that person getting job counseling, what about the healthcare component. And the one thing that I think that can sort of crystallize this as a sort of one-stop shopping is our Community Court. When we have low-level first-time offenders go into Community Court, which -- I'll put in a plug -- should be all over the City, this was an idea that people for first-time quality-of-life offenses could go to a community court. We started looking at this in the early 1990s when we went to a trip to New York. And it's 37 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 open now in Center City, but this needs to be brought to scale all over the City. It is unconscionable really that a big city like this with all the life quality crimes doesn't have a community court in virtually any neighborhood. However, when a probationer goes there, he or she can get healthcare, mental health treatment, HIV/AIDS counseling, mental health evaluations, and the Court is vitally interested in that individual's case problems and issues, and the Probation Department is working close with it. So if you have that idea of a probation officer being able to monitor, control, counsel, get services for the probationer, the chances of that person finishing probation successfully are greatly enhanced. The other alternative is really twofold. Number one, the probationer is going to just walk off his probation because they know that the probation officer can't check on them. So they can 38 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 sort of dance round, maybe not get arrested, maybe do some technical violations, but nothing that will get the Court to revoke the probation, and then at the end of the period of time that the Court has set, the probation for the person is finished. Or the other is equally serious but not as perhaps uncommon as the former and, that is, commit new crimes, violate probation, fail to show up, have dirty urines, have wanted cards and wreak havoc on the community. No civilized society can really endure, let alone drastically cut, our crime rate unless we have the kind of highly motivated, highly trained probation office who have specific training into the needs of individual probationers, and that is a difficult task. So I support the resolution. I am grateful that the Probation Department, with all of the weight that 39 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 they are carrying, does the just absolutely fantastic job that they're doing.

If you would sit in a courtroom for a day and listen to the numbers of cases coming before judges on probation matters, it would be enough to really make you half mad, because it is so difficult to make sure that the Court orders are carried out when you are just swamped, and it's meaningless. The whole idea of probation and parole is to make sure that you're not just walking off your time or avoiding or evading a wanted card or a violation of probation or a revocation of sentence and being back in the turnstile of the criminal justice system. The whole idea in the ideal world is to make sure that these probationers, having paid for their crime and we hope learned their lesson, are going to be able to come out in society wiser, we hope, for their being involved and pledge not to do it again, and the best way that we can assure that is we 40 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 have the kinds of manpower and womanpower assigned to the Probation Department who can make sure that at least the probationer has a chance of getting all the services that the City and the agencies of the City have to offer them. So I think that you will see if the Probation Department is properly manned and has the right equipment, the right training and the motivation, you will see crime drop, because I believe that probation is one of those forgotten and neglected fields that we don't really consider. But if you look at the figures, you will see that the probation and parole recidivist rate is inordinately high. Those cities which pay attention to probation and parolees are the ones that have crime rates drop, because the probationers and the parolees go out and get meaningful help, they get meaningful treatments, and they get on the road of meaningful rehabilitation quicker than those people who just don't 41 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 pay attention to the needs of the individual and try to just sweep this enormous problem under the rug and burden a probation department to the point where it's almost broken down. I thank you very much.

Thank you, Your Honor. Are there any questions for this witness? (No response.)

Thank you very much for your time. Councilman Savage has a question.

Thank you, Your Honor, for coming out today.

My pleasure.

You spoke about other cities. Could you give examples of other cities?

I think there are a number of other cities. I mean, if you want to look at a city like, for example, 42 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 New York, the crime rate, other than homicide this past year -- and I want to emphasize the importance of that figure. The homicides in New York City were well over like 2,200 only a few years ago. Those homicides have gone down dramatically. They had a slight uptick last year, as did other cities across the country, but their crime rates are going down. Crime rates just don't go down because they go down. And while no one can say this is the answer, it is the fact that we can see in our own city and elsewhere that when we pay attention to mental health treatment, when we do, for example, drug treatment as we have a drug treatment court where we have a small cadre of citizens who are closely supervised by a small number of Probation Department employees, when we have a Gun Court, which although it's creeping up, the ideal was no more than 50 cases to a probation officer, you see cities across 43 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 this country who are paying attention to after care, job training, mental health treatment, drug treatment, alcohol treatment. We're approaching it sort from a different end, and I think eventually this will help us dramatically. And I want to just touch a couple of things. Soon we're going to be opening a DUI Court, a court specifically designed for people who are arrested for drunken driving. The therapy, the after care and the supervision of the Probation and Parole office to make sure that these defendants are well supervised will drive, we believe, drunken driving down. Mental health treatment is extremely important, and I have supported a mental health treatment court for those among us, of which there are many, who are involved in the criminal justice system who are mentally ill. And, of course, there's a drug treatment court, which Judge Presenza has been supervising 44 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 for years. If you look at that group of people, you will see that crime goes down in that discreet community because of the close relationship between the Court, a specific judge, for example, the intensive supervision that they get, the close, watchful eye of the probation officer who makes sure that that person goes into treatment. And amongst that cadre of people, our drug treatment failure rate is extremely small, well, well, well below any numbers you might think. So where we're paying attention to individualized service and the desire to spend the money necessary -- look, we have almost 8,300, 8,400 people in the county prison where it's once again facing the possibility of a federal mandate, turning thousands of people out on the street to commit more crimes. What do you think they're going to do? It's a get-out-of-jail-free ticket. You don't think they're going to be straight 45 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 because some federal judge "loosed" them on the City, in which I unalterably oppose. The way to approach this problem is by making sure that the Probation Department has a discreet number of people with the supervision not being portioned out so that you don't have rapists and robbers along with minor offenders. If you can make sure that the Department is structured to give specialized attention, you will see, I believe, crime rates go down dramatically. And where this is happening, that's what's going on, in part.

Thank you.

Your Honor, thank you very much for your time and testimony.

Thank you, Councilman.

Bob Malvestuto and Corrinia Woodson. Good morning. 46 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

Good morning, Councilmembers.

Thank you for being here. Please identify yourself for the record and proceed with your testimony.

I'm Robert Malvestuto, Chief of Probation and Parole, and I'd like to thank Councilman Savage for the special invitation to be here today. Also with me is Probation Officer Corrinia Woodson, who will also testify, and Dr. Lawrence Sherman, Director of Jerry Lee School of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania.

And my old boss. Good to see you, Doctor.

Good morning, Councilman.

Please proceed with your testimony.

Thank you. I'd like to talk about reengineering Probation and Parole, placing an even 47 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 higher priority on crime prevention. The Adult Probation and Parole Department, otherwise known as APPD, of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania can become an even more effective crime prevention agency by restructuring its operations and adding new personnel to provide more intensive supervision of the offenders most at risk of killing or being killed. The growing problem of homicide in Philadelphia raises profound questions about the best ways to spend limited tax dollars for public safety. The Mayor emphasized strategies for crime prevention, which is a major responsibility of the Adult Probation and Parole Department. The key question is whether the Adult Probation and Parole Department should be reengineered to make prevention a higher priority based on advanced risk analysis for each of its cases. Just a comment or two about 48 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 crime in Philadelphia in the Adult Probation Department. I know it's mentioned already, but I want to emphasize it again. Within APPD, offenders were killed in 55 of all 344 gun homicides in 2006, which is percent. Within APPD, 9 offenders were arrested in 53 of the 235 10 murder arrests for 2006, which is 22 11 percent. This means to me that the Adult 12 Probation and Parole Department cases 13 provide a prime focus for homicide 14 prevention. 15 The term "risk" usually means 16 at risk of repeat offending, repeat arrest or repeat conviction of a new offense. That is any new offense. Both shoplifting and homicide receive similar weights. The old and still dominant approach to risk analysis in probation and parole across the United States does not distinguish different levels of risk by different levels of seriousness. A new approach to risk 49 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 assessment, in contrast, focuses solely on offenders who are highly likely to commit a very serious offense. Using advanced data mining tools, the University of Pennsylvania has provided APPD with a new means of identifying offenders under its supervision who are most likely to be charged with murder or attempted murder. This allows APPD to focus its resources on those offenders most likely to do the most harm. By using a range of information already found in the offenders' criminal histories, these tools forecast homicide risk among individual probationers and parolees using statistical methods similar to those employed in hurricane forecasting, even identifying rare events like finding needles in a haystack. By focusing on cases most likely to commit the most serious offense, homicide, the APPD now has access to what might be the most advanced risk assessment tool in the country. 50 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Using the new risk tool, APPD, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania, has launched the five-officer Strategic Anti-Violence, otherwise known as SAV-U. The SAV-U has developed and is testing its protocols for supervising a randomly selected sample of the highest risk people in the APPD caseload. The elements of this protocol include the following: Low case loads, cases per officer maximum; 13 psychiatric assessments for each case by 14 a Penn psychiatric social worker; 15 cognitive behavioral therapy provided by Penn for indicated cases; educational and literacy support as needed; targeted patrols by two plain-clothes police officers and one probation officer to each case each week, on both scheduled and unscheduled occasions; weekly and up to daily contacts between the probation officer and the case; preparation and support for reentry if the case client is incarcerated; assistance in locating 51 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 housing, drug treatment or other services. By the end of 2007, it is possible that SAV-U will rise to 75 cases, each of which will remain assigned to SAV-U for up to five years.

Whether APPD has a thousand officers, 500 or even 400, our best use for homicide prevention would be guided by a risk-based clarification of probationers. This classification would not be based on the seriousness of the offense for which they have been assigned to APPD. It would not be based on the seriousness of their prior conviction. Nor would it be based on the simple likelihood of recidivism in any offense category. If the APPD were staffed in accordance with its caseload's risk of homicide, it would be best advised to allocate caseloads according to risk of committing or attempting murder. A closely related option would be based on a probationer's risk of committing 52 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault or a sex offense against a child. Whatever the exact definition of the serious offense profile to be used as the basis for risk analysis, APPD now has the capacity to forecast who is most likely to be charged with those offenses, based on their past behavior. This forecast can now divide all APPD cases into three groups, like an emergency room 12 triage process: High-risk violent offenders, medium-risk violent offenders, low violence-risk offenders. The third group may consist of cases with a high risk of property offender but with a low risk of committing the serious violent offenses that the other two groups are likely to commit. The medium-risk violent offenders would be people who pose a substantial threat but for whom current resources do not allow the same intensity of supervision and support as those provided by the SAV Unit. The high-risk 53 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 violent offenders would be limited to the most highly ranked group of offenders identified by the advanced risk analysis model, with the cut-off mandated by the number of officers available to provide the SAV protocol. Under this model, the APPD would be restructured as a pyramid of caseloads and serious violence-risk levels. At the top of the pyramid would be the smallest caseload with the highest risk. Just below would be a larger caseload with a somewhat lesser risk. At the bottom would be the largest caseload with the lowest risk. Public recognition of high rates of homicide among the APPD caseload may contribute to a dialogue about the ideal investment in adult probation and parole. Evidence of the effectiveness of low caseloads for high-risk offenders is also needed. The APPD is currently assessing the impact of the SAV-U protocol on the rates of serious crime 54 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 committed by APPD cases. A randomized controlled comparison between standard supervision and the 15-case maximum SAV-U protocol will be completed by early to mid 2008. Further conclusions can be drawn at that time even while the question of how best to support high-risk people is being developed by trial and error. Offenders identified by the forecasting model are typically people who have suffered enormous problems in life. They have often been abused as young children. They've seen their brothers and sisters shot or beaten. They've been arrested for dealing drugs even as accomplices to their own parents. They may have chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder or chronic substance abuse. They also may be psychotic or suffer from bipolar disorder. Given the complexity and needs of each offender, there is almost no 55 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 limit to how much a probation officer can do to help bring order and hope to a usually young person's life. The only limitations are time, money and imagination. Of the three, imagination may be the most important. The frustrations of working with such difficult cases are great. Such work is not for everyone. It is a far cry from spending the day asking questions and recording answers. The SAV-U protocol requires a different set of tasks and skills from the standard model of probation.

It also requires a mutually supportive work culture in which small teams of probation officers can support each other, sharing challenges, ideas and commitment. High-risk and even medium-risk supervision will also require changes in the basic operating structure of the Department. It implies a need to move away from a day-shift-only mode of operation. It will require substantial 56 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 increases in police officers working with APPD. It will need to be justified in part by its potential to save money in the rest of the criminal justice system, notably the Philadelphia Prison System. It will require new systems for recruitment and retention focused on educational incentives. Most of all, it implies a strategy of budgeting now to reduce costs later. In conclusion, no one knows how many probation officers Philadelphia needs. Neither social scientists nor probation administrators can offer a clear formula. The answer may depend very much on how probation officers are trained, how they are organized and what they do. The answer may also depend on such environmental factors as the availability of illegal guns, the growth of gangs and the drug trade. The question of what Philadelphia could do with more probation officers is easily answered. More 57 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 high-risk offenders already identified but not under special supervision could be intensively supported by probation officers trained for the task. More potential murderers and murder victims could be diverted from a violent fate. Fewer murders in Philadelphia could get the City off the front pages around the nation, reducing any threat to tourism, new employers and our national educational institutions. And I thank you for your time. Before you ask any questions, if you'd rather go in that order, that's fine. I brought a probation officer with me who has experience in handling 150 ratio to one and is now a member of our SAV-U Unit I think that can give you some even further details on what a day in the life of a probation officer may be with this new risk model.

That's perfectly okay. You can proceed with your testimony. 58 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Committee, and thank you to Councilman Savage for inviting me here today. I'm Adult Probation and Parole Officer Corrinnia Woodson and I am currently assigned to the Strategic Anti-Violence Unit. Today I offer a brief statement on the major differences between supervising a high- and low-violent caseload. As we attempt to make our neighborhoods safer, I sincerely believe implementing and managing low-violent caseloads should be examined. The Philadelphia Adult Probation Department plays a vital role by supervising those criminal offenders who have been sentenced to probation or released from the county prison system. Many of these offenders have extensive criminal backgrounds and are known to be at high risk for further criminal activity. With the increased violence throughout the City, our probation officers can play a 59 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 critical role in any collaborative effort to address the current level of violence. On average, an APPD officer currently supervises over 150 offenders. Given court time and paperwork, this translates into seeing each offender roughly once every six weeks. While these visits offer us a check-point to make sure they still exist and roughly gauge their compliance with the terms of release, they do not allow officers a fuller picture of their living conditions or of the risk factors that lead to recidivism. Due to these historically high caseloads, many of our officers simply cannot have a meaningful impact on the highest risk offenders. Frequently, time constraints hinder the probation officer's ability to gain valuable background information and to assess the offender's most vital needs. High caseload numbers produce less personalized supervision. 60 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Having been reassigned to a unit capped at probationers per 4 officer, I'm able to devote more 5 attention to their needs, the needs of 6 their families and their threat to the 7 community. This low caseload enables me 8 to see each person more than once a week 9 in different environments: in the home, 10 the office or in the field with police 11 officers and during non-traditional 12 hours. This allows me to develop a bond 13 with each of my offenders and their 14 families, as opposed to the check-point 15 model, which involves routine questions such as did you obtain employment or have you moved recently. Small caseloads promote a facilitator model. I'm able to conduct intensive background investigations to gain a better understanding of my probationers' past and current behaviors, attitudes, values and social networks. I'm able to conduct comprehensive assessments of my probationers that they are matched with 61 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 appropriate resources tailored to their needs. These resources include, but are not limited to, individual or family therapy, academic enrollment, employment or even parenting or money management skills. This process of investigation, assessment and resource delivery is critical to our goal of motivating offenders to change their negative behaviors and to recognize their own strengths. The main goal of our department is to reduce recidivism and protect the community. Under the check-point model, officers are able to do little more than provide a phone number to a treatment facility or a community resource and instruct an offender to call to make his or her own appointments. With the facilitator model, I'm able to ensure that treatment and other resources are actually delivered. That is to say, instead of simply telling the offender to go to his GED test and hoping he shows 62 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 up, I'm able to actually transport him to that test. In addition, I'm able to revive family relationships through holding the family more accountable and getting them more involved.

This ability to follow up on the delivery of resources and treatments combined with family support enables us to have a real and positive impact on offenders' lives. Let me provide an example of the kind of work I am now able to do. This offender was assigned to my supervision on November 20th, 2006. He is a 19-year-old black male and has a one-year-old son. His criminal history contains arrests for armed robbery as a juvenile and illegal firearms possession as an adult. I first met with him over the phone and instructed him to report the following week. At this, he ran away from home. I made several contacts with his family and informed them of the officer reassignment. I also assured 63 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 them I would be doing everything possible to help get their son's life back on track. Several days later, his mother called me to notify me of her son's return. I immediately went to his home and explained to him the consequences of his actions. m. curfew. m. curfew was more appropriate. This curfew is still in place and I am happy to report that he has never been late coming home. m. every night. The family is very supportive of and grateful for the Probation Department's intensive supervision, and both he and his family are proud of his progress, while recognizing the work that still needs to be done. 64 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Case notes from the previous officer reflected that he claimed he was attending a Twilight program for his GED and that he and his mother were receiving family counseling. Investigation revealed these claims to be false. While his mother wanted to attend counseling with her son, she was unaware of the referral. This offender is currently receiving individual therapy and is set to receive family therapy when appropriate. Regarding the GED classes as I mentioned before, I actually drove him to the evaluation education process. He was there to discuss the results with the test administrator. In addition to ensuring his arrival, my presence there was a clear showing of moral support and encouragement. The offender's mother had previously told me she thought her son's reading level was well below average, but test results show that in fact this offender was not so far behind 65 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 educationally. I told him how proud I was of him, and we called his mother together. That was a truly memorable moment in which for the first time in his life people were telling him how pleased they were with him. Having a more positive interaction with the probation officer establishes a trusting relationship with the court representative and develops a more positive experience with the criminal justice system. Probation officers not only serve as advisors but have the potential to become a part of the offender's positive social network. This relationship, however, can only be fostered in the context of a manageable caseload size. It is my firm belief that implementation of smaller caseloads will lend assistance in helping probationers become more responsible decision-makers, develop positive peer influences and achieve greater self-esteem through their continued success, thereby reducing the 66 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 City's crime rate. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Before we have questions, Dr. Sherman, do you want to testify?

Certainly, Madam Chairwoman. Thank you for the opportunity and good morning to all of your colleagues here. I'm very grateful at your interest in this question, which I think is central to this community's response to its rising homicide rate. There's a number of numbers that have been mentioned. I'd just like to draw attention to a few of them. One is that percent of all of the murder 19 or arrests made in the City last year 20 were of people who are currently cases of 21 the Adult Probation and Parole 22 Department. One in four almost of those arrestees were people who perhaps had Probation had more resources might not have killed somebody. 67 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 In addition to that, we have percent of the murder victims. Fifty-five of the 344 gun homicide victims were also on probation. Had there been more probation and parole resources, those 55 almost all young men might still be alive today. And the question is, how do we calibrate that resource level? How many probation officers would we need to be comparable just to the rest of this state with respect to the issue of homicide as the top of the pyramid of crime to which everything else is linked? And I was astonished in preparing for today to go to the state information and find out how many adult probation officers there are at the county level. 8 probation officers per homicide outside of Philadelphia. If you 68 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 apply that ratio right here in Philadelphia, you would need 1,161 adult probation and parole officers. That's 1,161 compared to the current number, which is about 285. In other words, just to bring us up to the level of probation staffing for the rest of this state in relation to their homicide problem, we would need to have a fourfold increase in the number of probation officers in the City. I'm not here today to advocate that number. I think we might have massive implementation problems if we tried to move so quickly to have such a rapid growth in the number of probation officers, but I do want to say that there's a substantial basis in analyzing the number of probation officers Philadelphia needs in relation to a number of considerations. Here's just three more numbers: Over half of all the murders in the State of Pennsylvania occur in Philadelphia. 69 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 So Philadelphia has 51 percent of the homicides in the state, and it has 4 percent of the county level probation and 5 parole officers. Now, that comparison 6 needs to be looked at in light of the 7 fact that when we look at the rate at 8 which probationers are murdered, that 9 rate of victimization is four times the 10 citywide rate per hundred thousand. And 11 if we look at the rate at which they are 12 arrested for committing murder, that rate 13 is seven times the citywide rate. 14 Now, that's just the total 15 probation caseload. Most of the 52,000 16 people on adult probation and parole are never going to kill anybody. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them over a two-year period don't get charged with murder or attempted murder, but one percent of them do, and identifying that one percent has been the challenge that, until recently, could not be met without super computers and vast amounts of data. Two years ago the Adult 70 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Probation and Parole Department came to the University of Pennsylvania and asked us for that kind of help. They said, We have all this data, help us to make better use of it to try to reduce crime in this City. We recruited one of the leading statisticians in the country to move to Philadelphia with his family from University of California at Los Angeles where he was a distinguished professor of statistics, and he has now worked with those data.

He is now able to identify with 42 times more accuracy the people who are likely to be charged with murder or attempted murder from the probation and parole caseload of the APPD, and that is the basis of the SAV Unit, the Strategic Anti-Violence Unit, which was funded with a combination of appropriation from the City Council, moved by former Councilman Nutter, with appropriation from the Commonwealth in the form of a Pennsylvania Commission of Crime and Delinquency Grant and in 71 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 funding from the Jerry Lee Foundation, which is a Philadelphia-based philanthropy designed to learn how to prevent violent crime more effectively. What I think we are in a strong position to say as a community is that our Adult Probation and Parole Department is not just asking for more money because everybody wants more money. What we're able to say is that they have spent two years preparing for this moment, preparing for better risk analysis tools to identify those people most likely to kill or be killed, spent two years preparing for the question of what would you do if you knew who was about to kill somebody and how within the Constitution could you help to reduce the risks that they would kill. And the answers that we are developing have much more to do with increased support and somewhat to do with increased surveillance and monitoring, but certainly nothing to do with the idea of pre-crime prevented attention or 72 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 taking any coercive actions with people based on a prediction of what they're going to do. Rather, simply trying to intensify the implementation of whatever the Court has said, whatever the judge has sentenced the offender to do as a result of their most recent prior crime. The distinction here is that we are now using a much more full information model to assess in a triage way, just the way every emergency room 13 does in this City of great hospitals, to decide who is most at risk, who deserves the most attention from the available staff at this moment and what are the most effective things that can be done. I think that with this kind of preparation, the APPD is coming to you today better prepared to take action that will work against homicide than any other probation agency in the country. And not only that, it stands ready to test the effectiveness by use of a controlled trial, also the leading method of choice 73 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 in evaluating the effectiveness of prevention strategies in health, in agriculture and many other fields. So members of the City Council, let me again thank you for raising these very important questions and for considering whether if there was a limited amount of money to spend to combat the homicide rate in the City, whether it ought to be spread evenly around the many low-risk people in the City or heavily concentrated on those who we can very reliably identify as the people most likely to kill or be killed. Those people are in the caseload of the APPD, and I believe the APPD is well on the way to making a big difference, but you in your appropriations decisions, in your view of reengineering this critically important department could make an enormous difference if you were able to provide additional resources. Thank you again, and I'd be happy to answer any questions about any 74 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 of these calculations or indeed other calculations that are in the written testimony that I've submitted through Mr. Savage's office.

Thank you. Councilman Savage. Oh, Ramos. I'd also like to note that Councilman Ramos for the purpose of our record is also in attendance. He's a member of this Committee.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much for your testimony. I am so glad that Councilman Savage took this initiative to call for this type of hearing on parole and probation. This problem of violence cannot just be tackled just from one angle. It's more like an octopus approach to this problem. There are so many facets of it that have to be addressed, addressed effectively, and definitely taking a look at what you do 75 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 is so important for resolving this problem of crime and violence in our street. Ms. Woodson, how big is your caseload? How many people are under your supervision?

My caseload is currently being built since we just began the unit recently.

How many do you have right now?

Her maximum caseload will be 15.

15?

Yes.

Do you have time to do 15?

Yes.

You do?

Yes.

You gave an example of something that obviously just by the way you testified and your facial expressions that you felt good about this 76 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 one person that has a curfew at o'clock and he's there and it seems like he's trying to get his life together. Are most of your cases as gratifying as that one or are most of them different than this one?

Majority of my 9 cases are as gratifying as this one, yes.

So you see people under your supervision that really want to get their lives together and they abide by the restrictions that have been put on their movement, right? Is that what you're saying?

Yes.

Okay. Any of you two gentlemen, is this a generalization that one can make, that you have under your care in probation programs people that actually are abiding by the restrictions set forth by the courts versus -- because what I hear a lot is that there's individuals out there violating parole and probation and that 77 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 that's one of our big problems.

I think that's why we talked about the triage approach. There's some people that are most likely to be identified as high-risk offenders that really need specific attention, more services than those people that are low-risk offenders. Some people do well, very well, and don't need the type of attention that we're talking here with the SAV Unit. Some people do comply, they make mistakes and move on, but I think we're talking about a different group of offenders for this type of --

So it depends on the offenses that they have been charged with where you can calculate compliance or non-compliance; is that what you're saying?

Mr. Ramos, I would rather place it in terms of their entire criminal history of arrests as opposed to the offense on which they're currently being supervised, which is the 78 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 standard practice in probation but which our statistics suggest doesn't predict their risk of compliance were indeed killing somebody nearly as well as how young they were when they were first charged with a serious offense, how old they still -- or how young they still may be, since it's a heavy concentration of murder among people under in this 11 City, and whether they've ever had a gun 12 charge, which is, again, different from 13 whether they're complying with the 14 conditions of probation, which actually 15 doesn't predict very well who is going to 16 kill somebody. 17 So a lot of the traditional 18 focal points of action and even putting 19 people in prison for probation have not 20 been good predictors of homicide and, 21 therefore, haven't necessarily been good 22 places to focus our efforts. What I think you're hearing from one of the members of this pioneering new unit is that when you have a small enough 79 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 caseload, you can begin to build a special relationship, you can begin to stay in very close touch with people and make sure things happen, and that we hope will get a much lower failure rate with this group than we would, say, with 150 cases per officer. And with those people, the failure rates are very high all over the country. You have thousands of warrants for people who have violated the terms of probation and gone missing, and the police department encounters them in traffic stops and other places, but it's very hard to locate people once they have gone on violation. And one of the big causes of the rise in the prison population, both at the local level and nationally, is people going back to prison for violations of probations, not necessarily the most dangerous people, not necessarily for much good for the public cost it's incurring. But whatever we find out and come back to you a year from 80 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 now and say about this unit, at least we will know whether it's able to not just reduce violations of curfew -- and yesterday I heard in Wilmington that they're sending people back to prison because they're a half hour late for their appointment with their probation officer. Now, that's the kind of non-results-oriented thinking about probation that this department is moving away from and is keeping its eye on the ball and saying what's going to work to prevent murder. And I think the kinds of things that you've heard described today are so far very encouraging, just as the YVRP program, which only had 15 homicides out of a caseload of 600, was very encouraging, especially at a time when people who weren't in their caseload in the same area had 275 homicides. The message here is that if we invest probation in high-risk cases with low caseloads, we might be able to turn the corner that's been building up for 81 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 years with high caseloads mostly with low risk but with some high-risk people thrown in there.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Are you proposing that there should be or is there already or is this already in motion where you're proposing a revamping of the system and the approach of the system? Is it more prevalent in your line of work that the case -- is the case in Wilmington prevalent in the way the system works right now? The person was minutes 15 late in seeing me, the probation officer, 16 and you're off to the big house. Is that 17 more prevalent than, Well, this guy has 18 shown up on time most of the time, let's, 19 I think you said, discuss it or talk it 20 out? I mean, is this more prevalent?

I think in the history of probation in the United States there's been three stages. The first stage was, We're in favor of the offender. The second stage has been, 82 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 We're out there to catch the offender and put him back in jail. The third stage, which I see represented here today, is, Let's try to prevent crime, let's do what works.

Keep in mind, just a follow-up to what Dr. Sherman said, we've already started what he talked about with the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership with caseload maximums of 50 and with Gun Court.

I like that program.

Which had a substantial decrease in recidivism in the last year. So some of these high-profile cases have already gave this credence to look ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Councilman Savage.

Thank you, 83 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Corrinia Woodson, Bob Malvestuto and Dr. Lawrence Sherman for coming out today. The Adult Probation and Parole Department is a neglected department. The average person, individual, and a lot of people in government aren't -- they don't have a proper lens to what is really going on. People think that a probation officer's only job is to supervise, but it's more than that, and your testimony today and the testimony prior to you had shown that, that the person is a liaison to social services, the person is the future for an ex-offender, and basically it's a reentry program. And we hear the word "reentry" program, but the APPD is really a reentry program. And we do need more probation officers. You had said a number, Dr. Lawrence Sherman. Mr. Malvestuto, how many probation officers do you feel is necessary for adequate supervision? 84 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

I think I'd probably have to answer that the same way Judge Jones did. As many as the City and Council can afford to give us is as many as we would put towards more high-risk offender populations; namely, SAV-U, YVRP. I'd love to have a hundred additional probation officers to begin something like that. I think one of the risk models indicated that just to do our high-risk offender population with a caseload of 14 and -- don't quote me, but I think that 15 calls for just 200 probation officers 16 just to do that level, not even looking 17 at medium risk and low risk. 18 So whatever numbers could be 19 provided would be a substantial support 20 to safety in the City. 21

Okay. I 22 have a question for you. How is the APPD 23 within Philadelphia funded? 24

APPD is funded 25 through City of Philadelphia through the 85 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 FJD.

Thank you. I just want to make that clear, because I feel that's sometimes a question that needs to be answered. Some people aren't aware of that and that's why I wanted to make it clear. Corrinia, you have caseloads 10 in the SAV-U Unit. Do you feel that 11 that's the maximum you can handle while 12 still providing adequate supervision? 13

With the level of 14 resources that we provide, I do think 15 that that would be the maximum we could handle.

Okay. And what hours do you work in the SAV-U Unit?

We work 9:00 to 5:00.

9:00 to 5:00?

Yes.

I thought you had said -- 86 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

I'm sorry. We do have targeted patrol.

Excuse me?

We do have targeted patrol also.

Traditionally they're 9:00 to 5:00 hours, but with the new SAV-U Unit, they're non-traditional hours that they go out with the Police/Probation partnership, which takes them from 4:00 to 8:00, 8:00 to 12:00. So they're out with differential hours. That's beginning now, and it's also a product of YVRP and Gun Court.

Okay. Dr. Sherman, in your estimation, how does the increase in strengthening of the APPD stack up against other forms of crime prevention?

I think that this is the one that has the greatest capacity to make a difference with a population that's already gone through the hard part of the system. They've been caught. 87 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 They've been prosecuted. They've been convicted or pled guilty and they've been sentenced. And we have no better place to start in the City to prevent crime than this population. When we hire additional police officers, unless they're going along with Ms. Woodson in a visit to one of her high-risk potential murderers as clients, a police officer spends a good deal of time on patrol answering calls about quality of life issues that are not likely to result in a difference in the homicide rate. When they're patrolling in most areas of the City, which tend to be low crime most of the time, they are not likely to prevent a serious crime from occurring. But every minute of every day that a high-risk probation caseload is being addressed by these officers who are trying to make a difference with terrible traumas in their lives, possibly head injuries or post-traumatic stress symptoms, chronic 88 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 depression, substance abuse problems, illiteracy, if they can help these tiny, tiny fraction of all of the offenders in the City of all of the people in the City, if they can make a difference with their lives, that dollar spent for that purpose is probably going to have a much greater yield than a dollar spent for more police or more prosecutors or more prisons, for that matter, because the prisons simply postpone the problem and in some respects may make it worse, but probation, given the capacity to try to rehabilitate people where they live in the community so they don't have to go through a reentry, they're already there and they've already gotten in the habit of obeying the law and not killing people, that seems to me to be the place where as a society we are not only investing at the moment, we have close to 6 million people under community supervision compared to 2 million people behind bars, but we could drastically 89 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 reduce the money spent on people behind bars and possibly other areas of the system by investing in probation, reducing recidivism, having fewer cases coming in the front door of the system. And an investment in probation could even reduce the prison crisis and the federal court order that the Philadelphia Prison System is facing at the moment. It could be part of an agreement, a consent decree with the judge as a strategy for getting the prison population down, is to have a greater investment in probation and parole. And make no mistake, somebody is going to have to spend some money or see some other drastic alternatives coming out of that federal court order. So I think it's a very good way to think about if we had X amount of dollars to spend on the homicide problem in this City, where should it be invested most strategically. It's a question that can be and, believe me, I will be putting to the Pennsylvania Legislature as well 90 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 to see whether they could help get the state's homicide rate down, since half of it is right here, and it's a question that I think that the voters will be thinking about in the coming election campaigns about the future of our City. So I appreciate that question, and I guess I should say forthrightly if you have one place to put some money, it would be right here.

I have one more question for Dr. Lawrence Sherman. Concerning the statistical model, what are some of the main predictors in determining the likelihood of a probationer committing homicide?

Professor Richard Burke has worked very closely with Dr. Ellen Kurtz, the Director of Research for the Adult Probation and Parole Department, to continue to try to improve this model, in which a number of factors simultaneously are used to forecast homicide, just the way many factors are 91 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 used to forecast a hurricane or a tornado, and there's similar structure to that kind of analysis. The things that if you took out of the model that would reduce its predictive accuracy the most at the moment are early prosecution as an adult, say, getting arrested for armed robbery at age 14. You might not get convicted. Probably won't get convicted, because the witnesses may not come or whatever. But that early prosecution as an adult combined with the fact that you're still under or -- oh, and a very big 16 factor that we all have to remember and, 17 that is, that you're a male, because the 18 males are all over the world throughout 19 the courts of human history the people 20 who are most likely to be in this 21 prediction model for who is going to kill 22 somebody else. And then recently we've added the gun possession data, information about a prior charge for gun carrying. 92 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Those would be the ones that stand out very strongly, but, again, it's a complex model. There's about 5 different variables that are included in 6 it, and there's a bit of rocket science 7 that we're very grateful that the 8 statisticians have been able to bring to 9 this and will continue to, so that every 10 time new cases are drawn for 11 Ms. Woodson's caseload and her colleagues 12 in the Strategic Anti-Violence Unit, 13 they'll be using this highly advanced 14 model that's not unlike a weather 15 forecast but is focused just on the caseload of the APPD.

Thank you. Mr. Malvestuto, if Council expands their budget for additional officers, how will they be used?

Again, if you're expanding your budget for additional officers, they'd have to be used for the high-risk offender population, since that's the model that 93 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 we're looking to emulate, that what we're using in the initiation with SAV-U. It's already a proven factor with YVRP, and Gun Court has substantially reduced its recidivism over the last year. Our officers would go to -- like I said, I think the number before was about 200 officers would be needed to get caseloads of for these high-risk offenders. 11 That's where we need to put our emphasis 12 on. 13

Okay. 14 Thank you. 15

I have a 16 follow-up question. You keep using YVRP 17 as an example and as a model, so, 18 therefore, I just wonder, are you 19 targeting a certain age high-risk 20 offender for this -- is it the SAV-U 21 program? 22

YVRP, it's 23 more of a clinical assessment where we as 24 a group got together and selected who we 25 thought were the most likely to be killed 94 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 or to kill. The diagnostic model that the University of Penn provides takes in all the different categories that Dr. Sherman mentioned, takes in age, direct violence as a juvenile, takes in more categories than what we did with the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership.

I know, and I thought the YVRP program was pretty successful.

It is.

Is there a particular age group you're targeting for this intensive supervision?

I don't think there's a particular age group associated with it, but, however, I think they all fall in a particular range, around 22.

If I could just say, we did find one person in his 40's with a very long record of gun charges and so forth, and despite the fact that age is a very important factor on average, this fellow in his 40's was also 95 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 very high risk and could potentially become a SAV-U case. So there's no actual cut-off the way there is with YVRP, because as the Chief said, it's a statistical model rather than a clinical model. But I was encouraged to see that the YVRP actually identified about half the cases we identified with the statistical model, and I think that's an impressive indication that all these ways of coming in high-risk cases tend to be pointing in the same direction and with good promise that we can make a difference if we put more resources with those cases.

We had young people in City Council that are part of Don't Fall Down in the Hood and AVRP and YVRP maybe a week or so ago. They came in and we had a hearing that allowed them an opportunity to express themselves and say what they thought we should be doing in a variety of areas, education, recreation, et cetera, and 96 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 several of them actually were graduates, in a sense, of Don't Fall Down in the Hood, but, of course, the number one issue or one of the number one issues concerning reentry or successful stand on the streets is that they can't find employment. And then, of course, that says idle time, you're not doing much with your time. What are you going to do in this program to make it different for maybe -- because some of the young men did testify that they've had a very, very, very hard time locating employment. And we all know that employment is a big issue here. So are you going to have something built into this program that will have them participate in maybe volunteer activities, education or training activities? Is that going to be part of a required -- because if these kids are just going to sit home all day or -- I call them kids. They're younger 97 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 than me. If these young folks are going to sit home, it ends up they're right outside just doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

Again, I have to go back to with a caseload of 15, you're finding more time to broker the services necessary, spending time with career links. Like Ms. Woodson actually took the person to school, took the person to look for places of employment. You're absolutely right. And I think it was a publication around 2003 through the United States Office of Probation, Parole and Pretrial Services that -- and don't quote me on this, but the number is something like you're 500 times more likely to be rearrested if you're unemployed as compared to anybody else on probation and parole. It could be the number one factor that we have to give attention to.

Right. And I do know as a Councilmember people 98 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 stop me all the time asking me to help them find employment and many of them are ex-offenders, and no matter sometimes how hard you work helping them, it's just not successful. So I know the employment is really, really a big issue, and housing. And so I would hope that it's in this new unit. But I guess the larger question is, how is the Probation Department interacting and working with all of the other City agencies and services that are available and with the clergy initiative and with the Office of Reentry and all those things?

Actually, I work with the Mayor's Office of Reentry Service with Ms. Harriet Spencer back there, who is opening up a one-stop out at 52nd Street, and we've paid a visit there last week. We are going to house a probation officer out there for reentry purposes. We've also talked to Ms. Spencer about possibly even putting a 99 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 kiosk out there for low-risk offenders to divert some of the population coming downtown and have people feel a little bit more comfortable from maybe where they live. So we have somewhat of a working relationship with the Mayor's Office of Reentry Services.

And any other agencies like Department of Community Behavioral Health and whatever.

We broker services with PHMC. All the social service networks that we've been involved with we've been involved with for years.

And I notice when many people come in to testify around this issue, they talk about the number of people on probation and parole that are city or state. What are the federal numbers? Does anyone know?

I don't know the federal numbers. I could tell you that we have 52,000 people on probation 100 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 and parole. State Board of Probation and Parole has about 9,000 offenders. U.S. probation I do not know.

Okay. And I'm glad to see that University of Penn is here today talking about how you're teamed up in this whole effort. I get this. I guess I subscribed to a list maybe about three weeks ago. It's a national gang information list and I get like all these e-mails every day, which questions whether I really need to be on that list. However, I get a lot of information from John Hopkins. They're doing lots of seminars, workshops, and they really seem to be involved, and it just made me wonder what the universities and whatnot are doing here in Philadelphia. So I'm glad that you're here, and I know that you've been involved. I know you're involved with the Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia, but also to see that you're working hand in hand with the 101 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Probation Department. And maybe in that effort we can come up with a realistic number of additional probation officers needed. In your testimony -- I believe it was Dr. Sherman's testimony -- you said compared to the rest of the state in terms of numbers, we would need an additional 1,161 probation officers, correct?

That would be a total, Madam Chairwoman, not an additional, but the total number, which would be a fourfold increase, yes.

Right, versus the 285 that we have.

That's correct.

Okay. So maybe you two can really work together and come up with some good recommendations. Oh, and I did want to mention, I missed most of your testimony and also yours, Mr. Malvestuto, but I was glad to 102 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 hear when I walked back in the room that you were talking about -- I'm sorry. I'm looking for your name. Corrinia Woodson, I was glad to hear you mention families, because I was wondering how the family is really connected and what is the family's role and responsibility. Certainly we know family members of people that are on probation or parole, but I think the family is an important part and has to be integrated into whatever supervisory plan that you come up with. I've wondered sometimes -- I think families have to be comfortable enough to reach out to the probation officer to ask for help and it doesn't look like they're telling on the person that's on probation, because I think everybody's goal is to have them be successful. I have a niece that's working with the Youth Advocate Program with the Juvenile Probation, and many of those girls that she has are court adjudicated. Most of those actually are 103 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 on probation. Most of those young ladies are on probation because of fighting in school or in the neighborhood. But I believe that the families play a key role, and I'm glad to hear that in this unit you'll really, really be emphasizing contacting the families and working with the families of these offenders. Has it been helpful, just working with the families?

Yes, definitely.

Okay. That's good. We have one more Councilmember that wants to ask some questions. Councilman Rizzo.

I guess I'll direct it to the Chief. I guess in any organization or process there has to be a balance of people versus technology, and when Lynne Abraham, our District Attorney, indicated that you guys were still dealing with rotary telephones, at least you don't have to push "1" for this 104 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 or that, but that kind of got my attention. Tell me about the benefits of technology, what you can do and what can it do to make your job even tougher. I talked to a person recently that told me that he thought that this person was in this state and they had call forwarding on the phone and it was in another state and it was very difficult to manage this particular process that they were involved in. So tell me, is there more technology out there that would be helpful?

We're far beyond what the District Attorney had mentioned earlier. Actually, April of last year we started a new caseload management system within the Adult Probation and Parole Department, which handles all information systems within the Department, capturing all the necessary dynamics, demographics. We 105 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 also use JNET, which gives us information statewide arrest-wide throughout the Commonwealth. Officers have access to that. Court of Common Pleas just went with a new caseload management system, which is another way of tracking each individual docket. So the officers have more technology at their hands today than they've ever had in the history of Probation and Parole.

Maybe this isn't even what you do. When a person is confined to their home and they have that bracelet, is that you?

That's us, us in cooperation with Pretrial Services. They do the installation; we do the supervision of it.

So you're pretty much technically where you need to be? I mean, they tell me there's GPS devices now that can --

We've just had 106 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 a meeting with somebody to look at GPS devices two weeks ago. We're still using the EMU devices, but GPS does have some potential.

So when we talk about money, we're going to talk about making sure that you have the best technology, along with the necessary number of people.

I'm glad you said that, because you're absolutely right. And one other thing I would like to add is that I mentioned earlier the use of kiosk reporting for low-risk offenders. There's technology there. And I think when Commissioner Marty Horn came down, he might have indicated that it was about $10,000 for each one of the kiosks, not indicating the amount of software and the technical interfaces. I don't know what the monies would be there, but that certainly should be considered as Council takes that into consideration. So thank you for the 107 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 thought.

I learned a lot today. Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming and sharing your information with us. Thank you.

Madam Chair, Councilman, I thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

We have Mr. Alfonso Albright from New York City, who actually needs to leave; Harriet Spencer; and Denise Clayton. And Mr. Albright can go first. Mr. Albright, someone said you had to leave?

Well, I got a 2 o'clock train, yes.

So we'll let you go first. 108 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

Thank you.

Just identify yourself for the record. Thank you.

Okay. My name is Alfonso Albright. I'm the CIO, Chief Information Officer, for the New York City Department of Probation. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Council.

Good afternoon.

I received an invitation from Commissioner Horn to talk in regards to the reusable case management system and our probation kiosk. The agency deployed the first kiosk in 1997. It was supplied as a system with features to communicate with ARTS, our current DOP, Department of Probation, case management system. The RCMS kiosk is a supervisory tool that can manage the regular check-in of low-risk probationers. This allows 109 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 for the Department to focus its efforts on higher-risk probationers. Probation requirements dictate that probationers must report to the Department according to the terms of their sentence. Although the system is designed to allow probationers to report to a kiosk rather than to a probation officer, the kiosk can be used to supplement probationer reporting requirements and can be used in conjunction with an in-person reporting schedule. Besides managing their check-in, the RCMS kiosk system provides a way for the Department to communicate with the probationer population in the five boroughs of New York City. Apart from the reporting/check-in process that is done by the probationer, the application generates automatic "failed to report" letters and emergency alerts, such as rearrest notification. These features enable the Department to 110 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 maintain and track the probationer's compliance. The RCMS kiosk is comprised of four main interfaces designed for the use by four different types of users as described: The probationer interface used by probationers to perform their routine check-ins per their conditions of probation; the kiosk attendant/probation officer interface used by kiosk attendants and probation officers to monitor and manage those probationers using the kiosk; the business administrator interface used by the operational management for reporting and application. We figure if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. And the system administrator interface used by the Office of OIT, Office of Information Technology, staff to set up, configure and monitor the application's performance. The current status is, RCMS kiosk application was deployed citywide 111 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 on August 15, 2005. Since then, the application has been running successfully in all five boroughs. Kiosks are deployed in each borough of New York City and administered by OIT from one location. A typical site set-up consists of four to six kiosks and two kiosk attendants. Till date, the kiosk has enrolled over 10,000 unique probationers. On average, 17,500 probationers report to a kiosk monthly.

Thank you. We're not part of the technical department, so what is a kiosk? I mean, do you just call? Is it a call system?

A kiosk can pretty much be described as an ATM. What it allows is, instead of the low-level probationers -- currently we have about 22,000 low-level low-risk probationers on the kiosk that report on a monthly basis, usually the week of their birthday. So if your birthday is on the 15th, that week of the 15th you would report to the 112 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 kiosk. You would answer several questions: Do you still reside at this case address, have you been rearrested, are you still employed. Any question that they're responding as "no" to, they'll have to change. If they are rearrested, we already have that information from a pull, a feed from DCJS, Department of Criminal Justice Services, that already indicates and notifies us that the person has a rearrest. So they're not allowed -- they're allowed to complete going to the kiosk to answer the questions, but they are told to report to kiosk attendants, and their probation officer is notified to come out and inquire about the rearrest.

So where are these kiosks located?

Each of the kiosk terminals are located in the -- we've set up certain areas inside each probation location, a kiosk room that the 113 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 kiosk attendant -- I mean, there's two kiosk attendants in that location and six to seven machines at each location, and they report to those locations.

So people get a card like similar to an ATM card?

No. Actually, we supply them with a biometric hand scan at registration and a pin number attached. So they have to put their hand on the biometrics. That identifies who they are. Plus they have a pin number. And that's how they check in to start answering the questions. And at the end of the question round, there's a receipt printed out that indicates to them when their next time they're supposed to report to the kiosk.

So do they ever see a human being?

Yes. They are assigned to the reporting track. And some of the people on probation for low-level DWI or low-level drug offenses, 114 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 in the reporting track they have one probation officer that has a caseload of 350 to one, and if they need any additional information, they can always see that probation officer. But that's usually the person they see.

And your system is working pretty effectively?

Yes. We've been using the kiosk since 1997 when we first deployed it and we've never had a problem.

All right. I would assume that people would rather be supervised by kiosk.

That's the incentive, that you don't have to sit around in the waiting room. They answer the questions. We have a record so there's compliance. In our statistics it will verify or show how many people reported to the kiosk on a monthly basis, how many failed to report one time, two times. We go all the way up to seven. 115 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 And if they fail to report to the kiosk, it's just like failing to report to a probation officer. We can bring them in on a violation spec and bring it back in front of the judge.

Okay. Thank you. Councilman Savage.

Mr. Albright, thank you for coming down today.

No problem.

How much is the cost of the implementation of the kiosk?

When we first introduced the kiosk back in 1997, our first kiosk cost about $25,000. We created the kiosk using open software. We own the software, so we can pretty much build a kiosk for between $8,000 and $10,000. We own the software, New York City Department of Probation, because we web-based it. That allows for a 116 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 probation officer to see it from his or her desk and a kiosk attendant and management, all to see who is reporting to the machine at one time.

Okay. And I don't know if I heard you say this, but how many kiosk sites do you have?

There's a kiosk site in all five boroughs, between six and seven machines at each location, except for Staten Island, we probably have four machines.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

I know in New York you have the video surveillance cameras. Do you know much about those cameras?

Yes.

I figured you did since you're the CIO, Chief Information Officer.

Right.

Some of 117 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 the cameras have the ability to -- I'm just trying to think what you call it, but they have the ability to pick up people or pick out people that have an outstanding warrant. What is that called?

Surveillance?

The video surveillance cameras.

Well, it depends on where the camera is located. And if you're referring to probably the waiting area of a particular area, I'm pretty sure you could grab software. That's really high tech. That's like "24"-ish. To focus on an individual person that you're looking for, someone would have to monitor that type of camera to probably go through a scan through the faces and to come up with somebody to recognize.

There's some kind of face recognition?

Recognition software, right. 118 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

Right. I met with someone that said that they were really just trying to interest Philadelphia. I was wondering if New York was using that.

Not in my department, no. 9

Okay. For the video surveillance cameras.

No, we're not using that software, no. 13

Okay. All right. Thank you. I want to thank you, too, for coming down. I learned something new today. I had no idea. This just seems like such an easy way to monitor low-risk offenders. Councilman Savage.

What do you do if an offender does not show up to the kiosk site?

The kiosk machine automatically generates a failure to report on the end of the month, and if 119 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 they don't show up the next month, we allow up to two failure to reports before someone goes out on that person or probably trying to initiate specs for a violation for failure to report.

Do they have to show up at a specific time?

Well, yeah. They have to show up -- well, we're open from 8 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock at night. And they need to show up before the date of their birthday, week of their birthday. One thing we did notice when we first deployed the kiosk, that most people were trying to report at the end of the month. So we started an initiative with NYPD that NYPD sits in the waiting room and we do de-briefings, and we saw that number, that spike, where everyone wanted to report on the last day of the month drop, because they knew NYPD would be there to do de-briefings and most of them didn't want to talk to the 120 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 cops, so they would come on the day they were supposed to come.

And that day is their birthday or the week of their birthday?

Yes.

Has there ever been a major problem with a probationer on low risk?

No, not to my knowledge. You'll probably have ones on probation on the kiosk that are arrested for any number of crimes and it could happen just as they were on someone's caseload, but not that having them on the kiosk has resulted in somebody should have been watching them. So no. 19

All right. Thank you.

Councilman Rizzo.

Thanks for coming down. Getting away from the snow up there, right? 121 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

It started here. It's not snowing there.

Right. Further up in New York it must be really a bad situation. What is the goal of the kiosk? I get it where someone just comes and checks in, but what does it really accomplish? Just to let you know they're still in the area?

Well, it has two folds. I was listening to the probation officer report on her large caseloads when she had 150 cases. There's not too much you can do with a caseload of 150. Me, I could say experience-wise, I'm not just a techie person, I used to be a probation officer, so I know the experience. I used to have a caseload in New York of 220 cases. So with deploying the kiosk, you have the opportunity now to focus on those higher-risk probationers. I mean, you could take the low risk off your 122 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 caseload and you have the opportunity to really focus on the high-risk ones, where it would also decrease your caseload size. We've gotten our caseloads down in New York City to 65 to one, and currently some of the caseloads are under 65. And with a small caseload like that -- and even 65 is a lot for one person where you still have to do field visits, there's compliance, there's, you know, a whole variety of things that you need to take care of for that probationer to be successful. Even with 65, you can -- you're better able to handle a caseload of 65 rather than 180. So the kiosk allows for the low-level probationers to be moved to the side, report to an instrument or a machine based on certain criteria, based on some type of risk assessment, and they're monitored by a probation officer that has a caseload of 350. These people -- it's an incentive. They're on probation. They must report, but rather 123 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 than report to a person sitting in a waiting room, they could report one day a week. It takes up to five to ten minutes to report to the kiosk and then they're out the door.

So what you're developing is some discipline. Instead of just hanging out, they say, I've got to be at the machine to check in. But really other than just keeping track of people, that five-minute process when they check in -- what takes five, ten minutes? What do they have to do?

They have to answer the questions that are prompted, do you still reside at this address. Yes. If they've moved, they need to -- it's a terminal that they can enter all the information. It's in five different languages. And it's the same thing as if I was going to report to a probation officer that has 150 cases. He or she is going to ask me three or four questions, have you been rearrested, have you moved. 124 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 If not --

Okay. So you've basically automated the manual process.

The reporting, right.

All right. Thanks.

Thank you. Thank you for coming down and helping Philadelphia, sharing your information us. Thank you. You can leave if you want to.

That's okay. That's fine.

That's fine.

I don't want to be rude.

Actually, when I was watching the morning news show this morning on Channel 10, I don't think I saw any snow in New York.

It started here. 125 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 It's coming up there by this afternoon, the evening, 3 o'clock. I'll let you know.

Okay. So who wants to go next? Harriet? Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, members of Council. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come and share, on behalf of the City, the fact that we certainly endorse the need for the increase in probation officers for the Adult Parole and Probation Department. I am the Director for Reentry Services here in the City and I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you the reasons for the City's endorsement of the increase in the number of probation officers and to respond to some of the comments and questions that have arisen this morning by members of Council. First of all, obviously and has 126 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 been stated all morning long, by increasing the number of probation officers, we enable the officers to certainly do a much more effective job. Automatically their caseloads get decreased. We decrease any delays in the offender being able to make contact with the probation officer and we free the agents up to being able to do more work in the community. The Mayor, Mayor Street, created the Mayor's Office for the Reentry of Ex-Offenders back in June of 2005, and I'd just like to touch briefly on some of what we do working with ex-offenders and how critical the Probation Department's role has been in this process throughout the very beginning. First of all, we work with all of the ex-offenders in the City, whether they have come from a federal facility, a state facility or a county facility. And Probation in spite of the fact that they 127 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 have a limited number of staff, they certainly need more. They have just been right there by this office's side doing everything and anything that we've requested of them to do. We started our employment collaborative here in the City trying to increase the number of job opportunities for ex-offenders. That employment collaborative consists of the Mayor's Reentry Office, the Defender's Association, Adult Probation and Parole, members of the Philadelphia Prison System, as well as local service providers. We meet monthly. We identify effective strategies. We partner with our mentoring provider, and together we talk about what's working, what we need to do away with, how we can improve our service, and our ultimate goal is to increase the number of job opportunities for ex-offenders in the City. And, again, I tell you that Probation has been on board from the very beginning, and 128 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 they work tireless. I mean, they just -- I can't ask them to do something and they turn me down. We started the Reentry Housing Committee, because we also recognized that this population finds it difficult to find housing. Probation again is on the board. We work with members of the Department of Behavioral Health, again, the Defender's Association. So there's a network that's alive and well in this City who come together on a regular basis to address the problems of ex-offenders. And I'd just like to take a minute to share with you, having done this job now for almost two years, why I personally feel that without Probation and Parole at the table it would certainly make my job as the Director for Reentry Services so much more difficult. As the Chief testified a little while ago, a week ago we opened up the City's first ex-offender reentry one-stop center and it's located at 54th and 129 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Woodland Avenues.

We're depending on Probation being in that center with us 40 hours a week, and our thinking is, in order to get the clients to the services that have become available in the City, for those clients who come in to visit with the probation officer, the probation officer then says, Go to the Cubicle 3 three doors down and you will see an employment provider; go to the cubicle right next door to me, there's someone there who can help you with housing; across the hall from me you can get substance abuse or mental health treatment; while you're here, why don't you check in with one of the case managers and enroll in a GED or adult basic education program; go see somebody else for the parenting class that's offered. So we will try to meet the offender where he is, because everybody won't come in willing and wanting to participate in parenting if they don't 130 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 have children. So that service clearly won't be for everybody. But, again, the most important part or the important point that I want to make is that many of the clients will not read in the newspaper that this center is open, they may not hear it on the radio, but when they go to that probation officer and I know that they have to, that probation officer will ensure that they come and get the services that they need. And so that together we will work to reduce recidivism, of course by helping them to find employment, by helping them to find affordable housing, by working and addressing their mental health and substance abuse needs. This is our strategy and this is what we have been doing together. We were doing some of this when I was working in the Philadelphia Prison System, because I was there for years. 24 So our relationship didn't begin when I 25 became the Director of Reentry Services. 131 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 The relationship was established long ago and it has just grown, and now we're just taking services to the next level. And my office also commissioned the University of Pennsylvania through the School of Social Research. It's headed by Dr. Ron Kanon. They're conducting a citywide assessment of all of the reentry services in the City. That report should be completed this June. And we wanted the University of Penn to identify exactly where the deficits are, where the surpluses are, what we have -- if we have more than enough in any given area, point those services out as well. And once again, Adult Probation is working right along with us. They are a member of our research advisory team, and they are just an essential partner in this reentry process. I did not have a prepared statement and I jotted down a few notes, but I think I -- oh, I'd like to make one 132 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 other point, if I may, the fact that the responsibilities of the probation officers are multi-faceted. And, if I may, I'd just like to say this is not a whiny department. You know, they know what they can do, they know where their limitations are, but you never hear them complain. When we come together to meet to tackle a problem, they come to the table with their sleeves rolled up. And I think that that speaks volumes about the leadership of the Department and their passion and their commitment to help this population. And as the professor that previously testified mentioned, we're certainly in that third phase. This Department is working to prevent crime and to help reduce recidivism, make our neighborhoods safer, and they have the full support of the City. Absolutely we need to increase the number of probation officers. Thank you.

Thank 133 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 you, Ms. Spencer. Councilman Savage.

Mrs. Spencer, thank you for coming. You talked about the center, reentry program center.

Yes, sir.

And the probation officer is there 40 hours a week. Is that something that you do now?

We're meeting this Thursday. A team of about 14 probation officers and supervisors will 15 come out to the center. They will get the tour. We'll talk about the vision and the goals of the center. By the end of the week, I'll know the start date. I believe it's tentatively planned for the probation officer to be on site 40 hours a week beginning the first week of March.

And how many centers are there throughout the City?

This the first 134 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 center and it's been open one week.

Okay. That's going to be for low-risk probationers?

This is for everybody.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

I just want to thank you for your hard work, and I'm really happy to hear that you have a housing division, because that's also a very big need, other than employment. I was wondering, though, I know that there are some restrictions about ex-offenders in public housing, but does that also apply to other subsidized housing or is it just Housing Authority?

To my knowledge, Councilwoman, it's the federal housing.

Any kind of federal subsidy?

Correct. We're 135 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 working with local housing providers in the community and working along with CODAP to try to bring more houses up to code so that we can increase the number of housing units available. And these, of course, will be transitional houses, not long term, not permanent. And this is a first step for us, but to do something immediate to help this population find some housing.

Right. Because I know that that's a big need.

Yes.

The state-run halfway house on High Street is near me and some of the women from there were talking about their fear of once they were released, they knew they were not going to be able to afford apartments. I just thought it was unfortunate that there was a restriction, there's a general restriction on ex-offenders being allowed to utilize the subsidized housing system for housing. 136 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

And I believe that it's felons, Madam Chair. It's felons and those who -- any type of drug conviction, of course. Beyond that, I'm not sure about all of the restrictions.

Okay. Thank you. Denise Clayton. And don't forget to please state your name for the record. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Madam Chairman and Councilmembers. I'm Denise Clayton. I'm a Deputy Managing Director, the coordinator of the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership for the City, and I'm here to echo the Administration's support for the resolution to increase probation and parole officers in the City of Philadelphia. Sitting here and listening to the testimony, it's always warming to my heart to hear the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership mentioned several 137 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 times, and I thought that it would be helpful just if I briefly came today to offer from our perspective the effectiveness of having the adult probation officers as a very active partner in YVRP. I know I've been before you before and testifying about the Youth Violence Reduction Partnership, but just a couple facts that I think will help illustrate their partnership. Seventy-five percent of our youth partners actively enrolled in YVRP are part of Adult Probation and Parole, and it is really with -- it is with the commitment from Adult Probation and Parole that they have over these eight years demonstrated and now we have a track record to show what happens when you are able to reduce caseloads. Currently, the probation officers, both in Juvenile and Adult Probation, have a maximum of youth 24 partners in their caseload. One of the 25 things that -- I came from the child 138 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 welfare system prior to being in the juvenile justice system and now the criminal justice system. Not personally but by profession. And, you know, I think that people don't really realize this. I'm sure you do. But in the child welfare system, there is a social worker who is assigned to a case and oversees a caseload. In the juvenile justice system and criminal justice system, in the adult system, there is no social worker. There is a probation officer. And so what that puts on that probation officer is the responsibility of case management. It is not just monitoring and surveillance. And given the challenges that we face today and our communities face today, again, it puts that much more responsibility on the probation officer not just to do surveillance and monitoring -- and that's what you can only do if you have a 150 to 200 cases -- but that if you also have that responsibility of case management -- and 139 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 now you hear my professional bias as a social worker by training -- then you'll have an opportunity to actually try to do something for these young people, depending on what your age group is. As you know, in YVRP, we work with young people under the age of 25, and for many, 75 percent that are on adult, many of those young people have very extensive child welfare histories and juvenile justice history and it's not surprising that now they've graduated into the adult system, because somewhere along the line we have failed them in being able to really give them the kind of service -- the intensity of services that they need. And so in YVRP, I always look at it as the last chance for many of these offenders to get this intensity of services. But it's also rewarding to hear that if we're able to lower caseloads overall in Adult Probation, YVRP and this new unit that Adult Probation has formed 140 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 will not be those only chances. Never again I think for the youth partners -- as you know, we deal with the young people most likely to kill or be killed. I really believe that never again will they get this level of service. For many of them, death will be their next step if we're not there to intervene. And for the rest of them, it will just be graduating into the adult prison system.

So I don't think it takes much to really figure out if the successes of YVRP -- sure, we are very strong on intensive monitoring and surveillance and that the probation officer does it very effectively, but because they have a lower caseload, the probation officer, along with their street worker, is able to meet the needs of that particular individual and, I will underscore, their family. You cannot deal with someone who lives in the community and think that they live in isolation. And the challenges that these young people face, 141 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 it's daunting when you get a chance to read their histories and to get to know them. The thing that also -- and I will be brief -- that I think we often forget is that for many of these people that we're talking about, not only is recidivism just another way of life -- and that we've heard about this morning -- but the thing that gets me is that many of these young people or people are parents. And if we don't do something now to help these young people who are in trouble and that their destiny is sort of set unless we interrupt that, we're not going to have a chance. This is the second generation of young people who have not been parented, and we have to do something to interrupt this repeating cycle. So I always think that when we're working with our youth partners, if we are effective in changing the life of this young man, we are in turn hopefully 142 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 setting a future for his children and that maybe we can break this cycle of young people who haven't been parented and give this next generation a chance. So, again, as part of YVRP and part of the Administration out of the Managing Director's Office, we wholly support the efforts of Probation and Parole and also want to underscore the importance of having more probation officers so that more intensive services can be given to those most at risk. Thank you for having me today.

Very good. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Any questions? (No response.)

There are no girls in YVRP, no females, correct?

Yes, there are. Certainly disproportionate to the men, but, yes, we do have a number of females.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you all for 143 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 coming and sharing. We have Ed Schwartz and Bob Zimmerman. Unfortunately, we're running a little behind. We have another committee scheduled at 1 o'clock. Good afternoon. Whoever wants to go first is fine with me. Mr. Schwartz, do you want to go?

I'm Ed Schwartz. I'm President of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values. My testimony on the whole problem of reentry, actually three years ago when this Committee held a hearing on it, ended up on our website for quite some time and has stimulated this follow-up activity. According to the CrimeBase database, also located on the University of Pennsylvania's Neighborhood Information System, which is publicly available, there were more than 88,000 serious Part crimes committed in the City in 2006, not even counting murders and rape. 144 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 One year later, at the request of the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, the Philadelphia Probation Department provided us with a database showing where by zip code more than 43,000 ex-offenders out of a total caseload of roughly 52,000 on probation live in Philadelphia today. Interestingly enough, 9,000 people on probation do not presently live in Philadelphia, which raises the question of why we are responsible for monitoring them. Trying to keep track of 43,000 people on probation is difficult enough. In fact, the spreadsheet we released today, which is at the back of this testimony, shows us the close relationship between the number of people on probation in a neighborhood and the level of serious crime that takes place there. The six zip codes with the highest number of serious crimes are also the six zip codes with the largest number 145 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 of people on probation. Fifteen thousand, six hundred and sixty-four live in these six zip codes, more than one-third the total number of people on probation living in Philadelphia. At the same time, nearly 26,000 serious crimes were committed in these zip codes in 2005, roughly 30 percent. The percentages are nearly identical. These high-crime zip codes are scattered across Philadelphia. They include 19143 in Southwest Philadelphia, 19134 in Port Richmond, 19124 in Frankford, 19121 and 19132 in North Philadelphia west of Broad and 19140 centered around Tioga-Nicetown and Hunting Park. Overall, there are 17 zip codes with more than 1,000 people on probation. Fifteen of these zip codes had more than 2,100 serious crimes in 2005. As an example, more than 5,600 serious crimes were committed in Port Richmond in 2005, an area where there are more than 2,800 146 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 people on probation. We have known for years that most crime is committed by repeat offenders. This data literally brings this general proposition home. Over the past several months, the public debate over neighborhood safety has focused exclusively on where crimes are being committed and what weapons are being used to commit them. The two favored remedies are hiring more police and finding a way to get guns off the streets. This is what we've been trying to do for the past eight years. These statistics tell us that if we want to get serious about crime, we need to look closely at who is committing it around the City and what we can do to get them to stop. Probation is to crime as outpatient care is to disease. Until someone is completely cleared, he or she still poses a threat to the City and a threat to our safety. We either cure 147 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 them of crime or we face their bad behavior again and again. Nothing like this philosophy guides our criminal justice system today. 3 billion we spend to reduce crime in Philadelphia, nearly 50 percent of what we raise in local taxes and fees, $498 million goes to the Police, $194 million goes to the prisons, and by my estimation, another $450 million goes to pay for employee benefits owed to the people working in those departments. We're spending as much as $7,300 to keep a detainee in the Philadelphia prison while they wait three months for trial. 3 billion, only $18 million is spent on probation, a little more than one percent.

And people on this staff are expected to monitor between 180 and I was told at some point 300 people, although we heard somewhat different numbers but still overwhelmingly high, who live in our 148 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 neighborhoods and are responsible for most of the crime. Does this make any sense? In my estimation, the Probation Department now seems to be seeking 100 additional probation officers to pay closer attention to the people most likely to commit crimes in Philadelphia, as determined by a computer analysis that you've heard a lot about this morning, undertaken by Dr. Larry Sherman of the University of Pennsylvania. I support this request and am pleased that I don't seem to have to urge the Mayor and the City Council to support it since they have stepped forward here this morning and already pledged their support. We need a probation system that can hold ex-offenders accountable for their activities on probation, just as organizations administering welfare to work programs hold TANF recipients accountable for fulfilling their 149 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 responsibilities under welfare reform. But beyond ensuring accountability, we need a probation system to oversee the expanded system of support that ex-offenders need to transition into responsible roles within our community. And you've heard some about this this morning in scattered ways. Let me kind of lay them out. Drug treatment. District Attorney Abraham talked about this. We offer this now through the FIR program, which has a demonstrated record of success. But its state and federally funded budget is woefully inadequate to meet the need. How can America claim to be committed to a war on drugs if we are unable to provide treatment to those who need it? That should be a major cause for those of us fighting for a probation system that provides genuine support. Mental illness, which was not mentioned much today. Thousands of 150 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 people in our prison and in our neighborhoods are committing crime because of untended mental illness. Years ago we closed inhumane mental hospitals without replacing them with the community care facilities that were supposed to take their place. So a significant number of people who end up in prison here and elsewhere really need treatment for mental illness. This is a second support system we need to build for people on probation. I would add that the 60 Minutes had a devastating portrait of this problem in the State of Michigan just on Sunday night, mentally ill people in the prisons and how they were being treated, really mistreated. Affordable housing. You've heard about this this morning. Most ex-offenders simply cannot find affordable housing. They're banned from public housing by federal statute. Wouldn't it make more sense to a 151 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 probation system to have a probation system where a probation officer could vouch for the good behavior of an ex-offender and insist that he or she show up regularly for appointments as a basis for letting them live in public housing instead of ending up in homeless shelters or the streets? Job training and jobs, which you've heard about. The same could be also said for these. We need a system to help ex-offenders get job training and jobs. Right now there is no back-up system to reassure an employer, however, that an ex-offender is being monitored for bad behavior. An ample probation system could play this role. None of this will happen, however, until we set as a goal for this City not just to reduce crime but to reduce the number of people who commit it. In 1987, there were more than 5,000 people in homeless shelters in 152 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Philadelphia. Mayor Goode set a goal of reducing people in the shelters by 300 a month. Groups like Project HOME and People's Emergency Center stepped forward with a continuum of care programs that really made a difference.

Today there are only 2,500 people in shelters and we've cut the City budget to support the homeless in half. The same holds true of welfare reform. In 1997, there were more than 67,000 households in Philadelphia on welfare. Today there are roughly 30,000 households on welfare. To be sure, some are in prison and others are homeless and too few of them have risen above poverty. But thousands of people who were on welfare ten years ago are making a living today. Why? Because this country and this community decided that helping people move from welfare to work should be a national priority and here in Philadelphia we've made it work. That's what we need to do in 153 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 this area in Philadelphia now. We need to set as a goal reducing the number of people who commit crimes as our major strategy for reducing crime itself, by focusing on drug treatment, mental illness, affordable housing and jobs. And at the center of this system should be a probation department with a staff large enough to hold ex-offenders accountable and provide them with needed support. These are already emerging as the City's priorities in fighting crime, as you have heard at this hearing this morning. Looking ahead, we need to insist that every candidate running for Mayor pledge that they will work to build a probation system that can hold ex-offenders accountable for their behavior and that can provide them with the support that they need. This hearing on our probation system is an important step in the right direction. 154 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 The Institute for the Study of Civic Values, in alliance with Philadelphia FIGHT, will do what we can to ensure that this important discussion continues throughout the year until we as a city build the accountability and support system for ex-offenders that all of us need. Thank you. Let me just say one moment about the table in the back just to be very clear, and I'm pleased to say that the Philadelphia Daily News devoted a full page today to this issue prompted, in part, by our work and by this hearing, and they have included a map that takes the top ten zip codes. I found this startling. I didn't know what to expect. We got the data on probation, and you just see the rank and find out 19119 where we live. And then I just went over to this public database that you can easily access at Penn and looked for Part crimes by zip code, and what you see in 155 1 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 the right is the rank of those crimes in relation to the rank on probation. And really they're not absolutely identical, although many of them are, but they are so close. And I think that if we're talking about a culture of crime, really bearing down on helping the people who commit crime turn in a different direction has to be the heart of that system, and the probation system, in my judgment having looked at this for a while, is where that activity needs to be centered. I'll stop.

All right. Thank you. You always bring such good information to these hearings.

Thank you. I try.

Thank you. Mr. Zimmerman.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. My name is 156 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Bob Zimmerman and I am President of Local 810. We represent the 550 probation, parole and hearing officers of the First Judicial District. I thank Councilman Savage for convening this hearing today so that we can begin a dialogue with the City Council, the administrators of the First Judicial District and all the agencies of the criminal justice system that serve the citizens of Philadelphia. We all know about the crime and the violence that is plaguing our City. We at 810 absolutely support the effort to hire more police, probation and parole officers, assistant district attorneys and other professionals that can work on this crucial issue. We also recognize the budgetary restrictions that face our City. Therefore, today I would like to offer some ideas that I and my members have discussed and we, from our years of experience, feel would make us more effective and productive officers. Many of the crimes being 157 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 committed in Philadelphia are being committed by the individuals already under the supervision of the courts. Therefore, the members of Local 810 know that the officers need to have a more manageable caseload so that more intensive supervision of offenders is happening. We know that hiring more officers will help with this issue, but we also think it is important to have more officers in the neighborhoods and not supervising offenders from an office in Center City. We encourage more intensive orientation and ongoing training for our officers; the formation of more specialized units like the Youth Violence Reduction program both in the juvenile and adult court and a gun court in adult; ongoing in-service training for our members so that they can share their experiences with administrators to better supervise the offenders and ultimately protect our citizens. We would like to 158 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 work more closely with the Philadelphia Police Department. It is imperative that I remind you that in many instances Local 810 adult probation and parole officers are able to conduct a search without a warrant. This is an effective crime-fighting tool. Retention of our officers is a very important issue. We have a 40 percent turnover in officers every three to five years. The officers of Local 810 strongly advocate that changes be made so that we will be able to retain officers who will act as teachers and role models to new officers. We lose our officers to federal positions and, most recently, to positions in the surrounding counties. Therefore, we must be competitive. Today we are here to join our partners in the criminal justice system to ask for more officers to better manage caseloads, but we hope to have additional opportunities to address you regarding other issues facing our officers, such as improved 159 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 working conditions, competitive salaries and updating of personnel policies. Again, we appreciate this opportunity to open the lines of communication with City Council, the First Judicial District and our partners in the criminal justice system. We are all in this crisis of crime and violence together. Local 810 members are highly professional and knowledgeable and stand ready to work with you to alleviate violence in our City. Thank you.

Thank you. Is that the end of the testimony?

Yes, ma'am.

Do you want to testify?

No. I can just say that I've been with the Probation Department --

Identify yourself.

Lisa Podickins. 160 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Good afternoon. I'm a YVRP officer and I'm here in support of the resolution, and I want to thank you all for listening to our concerns and ideas, and I'm just here in support.

Okay. Thank you. I just have a quick question. What is the starting salary of a probation officer here in Philadelphia?

I believe the starting salary is somewhere in the neighborhood of $38,000.

That's coming right out of college. You have to have a Bachelor's degree, correct?

Correct.

And when you say that you're losing officers to some of the surrounding counties, they actually are going to those counties to take a similar job as a probation officer?

Correct. Historically we always lost a certain 161 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 amount of numbers to federal probation, but recently, the last six, seven years or so, I've been seeing a substantial increase of officers that are leaving to go to Bucks County and Montgomery County as probation officers, something that was unheard of years ago.

Okay.

The problem is, the starting salary is -- they're attracting into the Department. There's no doubt about that. It's the motivation and the retention that we're having a problem with. Like they're bringing officers on in the neighborhood of 38 and maxing them out at 44, 45. What really brought this to my attention was that probation and parole officers in the City of Philadelphia are $6,000 underpaid that of a City social worker.

You mean as a starting salary?

The social worker in the City starts out $5,000 162 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 less, but through a series of years increases to $6,000 more. So although salary isn't the only issue, it's the main issue, because we have families and bills and things of that nature, and I think that can be a contributing factor why we're losing officers at an alarming rate.

Okay. You said that there are retention issues. So what would be some of the things that we would need to do to keep people, other than salary? Improving working conditions you have down here.

The main culprit, Madam, is the pure number of caseload size. I'd just like to add one issue that hasn't been -- if you have a 40 percent turnover rate, the probation officer -- me and you are working side by side and we both have 160, 170 bodies, you leave, that caseload has got to be split down. So on paper we're 163 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 supervising 160, 170, but through the turnover rate, I'm just getting 40 more, you know. I think salary, caseload size. I believe we need to look at the possibility of getting more flex hours as opposed to the 9:00 to 5:00. I think we need to be out of the community more. Years ago we had satellite offices. They all shut down and we're all housed at 1401. So although salary isn't the only issue, I think that it's a main issue. But, again, the caseload sizes are just a pure stress. I mean, it's impossible to follow judges' stipulations because of the pure caseload size.

Sure. And plus even a 9:00 to 5:00 work schedule, you don't have the flexibility to maybe do a 11:00 to 7:00? I mean, they have to take off work to come to you?

We have one 164 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 late night a month, and our statistics show -- and most times we are in align with the Administration, but our statistics show that that's very beneficial as far as collecting money. So I would question whether -- I mean, yeah, you got to take the -- tell the offender, what are you going to do, take off, because I'm only working 9:00 to 5:00. I think the current Administration is looking at that, though, in all due respect to them. I would like to see a more flexed-out schedule. Here's your caseload, supervise it. When I was first coming through years and years ago, we were out in the community. We knew the rec centers. We knew the churches. We knew the families. We've lost that. We've lost that.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Councilman Savage.

Thank you for coming out today, Mr. Zimmerman. 165 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 So basically if you had more parole officers, you would be able to have that human touch that's needed to prevent recidivism that you talk of when you early on were a probation officer?

No doubt about it. I mean, like Bob Malvestuto mentioned earlier, a lot of the smaller caseloads are going to be through the intense supervision. We're still going to have a certain amount of officers that are going to have a higher amount of caseloads. But the smaller the caseload, the more personal you can get with that caseload, especially when it comes to the family. And I think Madam Chair brought that issue up as far as the family addressing the need of the offender through trust as opposed to like diming them out. We lost that touch with the family, and I think that's a very important element and I think that would enhance our -- smaller caseloads would enhance that connection. 166 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

We really appreciate you guys coming in. Is there anyone else here to testify on this bill? (No response.)

Mr. Schwartz, you said you wanted to add something?

Just one final comment. This is one of the areas where the government is way ahead in the way of the people. Usually it works the other way. But there is much more serious discussion and understanding of this within the government than I think exists out there. And nationally what's fascinating is that even very conservative Senators like Brownback of 167 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 Kansas are now making reentry a major part of their own philosophy. My reasoning about getting this data by neighborhood is to drive home that all people who commit crimes aren't living within three blocks in North Central Philadelphia. I think people are going to be somewhat shocked about the number of people in Frankford in your Seventh Councilmanic District and Port Richmond. So the idea is to convey to the people in neighborhoods that we need to get together and figure out what's happening with these folks who are living not too far from us and giving them more support and, yes, holding them accountable. So we will be doing, the Institute and FIGHT as we did on Martin Luther King's day of service, as you, Councilwoman Miller, participated in, we are going to be doing other community kinds of meetings. And I think you may 168 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 know, I manage a website and e-mail list that reach several thousand neighborhood activists a day. All of this will be up online over the next day or two. So we look forward to working with you to see whatever we can do to get the public on board with the initiative that you have presented here and that the Administration appears to be supporting.

Okay. And that will be great. Thank you. I used the Probation Department to help me with a clean-up on a Saturday, and they said, of course, that all the persons that were out there to help were on probation, and when I looked up, I saw a couple of my neighbors. I had no idea that they were on probation. So it is a whole community effort. We do need to work together.

Absolutely.

Seeing that there are no more people here in the Chambers to testify on this bill, we will 169 2/13/07 - PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 060947 recess this Committee to the call of the Chair. Thank you. (Committee on Public Safety adjourned at 1:05 p.m.) - - - 170 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on February 13, 2007, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)